Railways: Draft Manual

[Jim]

What's currently proposed is a completely separate document. Not sure where opportunity for overlap would be.

I'm thinking of things like the information on formats of files, "how to become a data manager", etc.  But if it's substantially different overall structure and limited content overlap, it's probably not worth trying to create and maintain a common version with conditions to show differences.

[Duke87]

I'm thinking of things like the information on formats of files, "how to become a data manager", etc.  But if it's substantially different overall structure and limited content overlap, it's probably not worth trying to create and maintain a common version with conditions to show differences.

Oh I was thinking just of the manual outlining the rules of what is or isn't included and how things are drafted, which is all that's atop this thread.

The "how to participate" page... most of the verbiage can probably be reused, though it does still need to be altered to reflect rail vs. road.

I still think it's probably easier to just have a separate copy of the page though, rather than trying to make it morph itself depending on which subdomain calls it up.

[M3200]

Question on the tiers as I'm starting to draft things up, why are tourist/heritage railroads tier 2? At least in the US they're not very long and function more like a Tier 4/5 type system (as least as I conceptualize it).

{snip}

Tourist/heritage railroads in the US are usually not "urban" in nature and are FRA-regulated the same as commuter railroads and Amtrak are.

And, well, look at the type of equipment they use: fullsize locomotives pulling fullsizes coaches. That resembles what commuter railroads use. It does not resemble a subway, light rail, streetcar, or people move at all.

I would be very against moving heritage railroads down from tier 2 broadly, however if a particular heritage railroad does not meet what I described above (e.g. narrow gauge, smaller equipment) then I could see it being placed in tier 4 or 5 instead.

Actually, there are a few heritage light rail (trolley) lines in the US.  Examples include the East Troy Electric Railroad (Milwaukee area) and the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine, which both utilize isolated remnants of local trolley systems.  There is also the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, which runs on a rebuilt segment of the former Maryland & Pennsylvania (Ma & Pa).

[si404]

Quite often the bigger European tram systems run a heritage line as part of their operations.

And there's also the old vehicles on the F Markets and Wharves line in San Francisco